Carcass Yields and Meat Composition of Male and Female Italian Slow-Growing Chicken Breeds: Bianca di Saluzzo and Bionda Piemontese

Simple Summary Bionda Piemontese and Bianca di Saluzzo are two slow growing breeds from northwest Italy, specifically from the Piedmont region. Their low input requirements make them suitable in organic and free-range rearing contexts for both meat and egg production. This research, part of a conservation program for these two breeds, aims to define the meat properties and qualitative attributes of these two breeds, comparing them at different slaughter ages in order to identify the most profitable slaughter period. The results show significant benefits associated with slaughtering at 7 months of age, which outperformed the shorter rearing periods in terms of both better slaughter performances and meat properties. The slaughter performance and meat quality of two native Italian chicken breeds, Bionda Piemontese (BP, n = 64) and Bianca di Saluzzo (BS, n = 64), were investigated. Two-way ANOVA, considering breed, sex, and their interaction, was used to compare the properties of birds slaughtered at 5, 6, 7, and 8 months of age. Subsequently, data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA and the Duncan test to evaluate the differences between slaughter ages. The BP breed produced a better carcass yield than BS at 5, 7, and 8 months of age (p < 0.05). Breast moisture and crude protein contents were influenced by gender, and were higher in males than in females (p < 0.05). By contrast, the crude fat content was higher in females than in males (p < 0.05). The saturated fatty acid content of breast meat increased as the birds aged in both breeds (p < 0.05). The polyunsaturated fatty acid content of both breast and thigh meat was higher in males than in females (p < 0.001 and p < 0.05, respectively). In general, slaughtering at 7 months was associated with the best slaughter and meat quality characteristics in both breeds. Moreover, from a nutritional point of view, the characteristics of the meat from male birds were preferable to those of meat from females.